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Boulder's Where There Be Dragons offers students the road less traveled

Cross-cultural gap program enters its 25th year

By Jerd Smith

Business Editor

Posted:
01/28/2017 08:00:00 AM MST

Updated:
01/29/2017 08:36:23 AM MST

Jody Segar, China program director, left, and Aaron Slosberg, director of student programming, discuss orientation for instructors in China for the spring semester at the offices of Where There Be Dragons in Boulder on Wednesday. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

On a frigid January morning, a rare ice storm is sweeping across central Boulder, but inside the offices of Where There Be Dragons, giant green plants and walls hung with hundreds of photos of remote tropical places easily throw off the cold.

More than a dozen staffers work quietly here, focused on a far-flung empire of cross-cultural trekking, living and community service.

This is the quiet period for Dragons, which operates gap programs for high school and college students worldwide. In two weeks, the noise level will rise dramatically as its spring semester kicks in. More than 650 students will tap "Dragons" for a gap-year experience that centers on places few would ever travel normally because they don't cater to tourists.

Executive Director Reed Harwood holds a photo taken of a local girl on one of the company's programs in 2007 called "Visions of India" at the offices of Where There Be Dragons in Boulder on Wednesday. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

And that's the idea — to place students who range in age from 14 to their early 20s, in environments that are rugged, unfamiliar and challenging, all under the close supervision of instructors who, if not native to a particular region, have spent months and years there as Peace Corps volunteers, aid workers or simply ex-patriots. They have personal relationships with families in villages in Senegal, Bolivia, China, India and beyond.

"For a student to go into a village with an instructor who has been there for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer is a unique experience. They are welcomed as guests, not tourists," said Executive Director Reed Harwood.

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Most instructors speak at least the primary language and some local dialects, and all are trained as certified wilderness first responders.

When Nepal was struck by an earthquake in 2015, Dragons had 24 students on the ground in the area. It took a week to evacuate them.

Two students were in Senegal during the Ebola outbreak. In both instances, students were brought out safely, and that's one of the hallmarks of Dragons' program, its approach to safety and risk management.

Lindsay Coe works in an office with a map showing the location of student recruiters in the United States at the offices of Where There Be Dragons in Boulder on Wednesday. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

There is no way to predict when something will go wrong, says Harwood. "Risk management is a really dynamic process. So you have to have experienced people in the room with good judgment, who know what to do."

That's part of the reason Dragons was chosen by Princeton University in 2009 when the Ivy League school began its Bridge Year Program. The idea, according to Bridge Year Director John Luria, was to offer freshmen students a year off to experience remote, culturally significant regions before starting their formal studies.

Princeton now partners with Dragons to run programs in five countries. "They are really strong in their networks in local communities and they are deliberate and thoughtful about the way they approach student learning," Luria said.

Though accredited by Boulder's Naropa University, Harwood said Dragons has cultivated staff who are mentors, more than teachers, because the program focuses on personal growth and development, rather than academics.

"How do you coach students through something that is challenging their reality? It's a ripe place for growth, but it has to be mentored well," Harwood said. "This is not an intellectual endeavor."

On any given day during the year, Dragons will have students on the ground in 20 different countries for two to four weeks or several months, depending on the program. It works with high schools and colleges across the country, charging $6,000 and up to take young people into regions that aren't exactly unknown, but which are nonetheless difficult to access and to experience in an authentic way.

Tim Hare, director of risk management, talks with Cara Lane, director of the study abroad program, about safety procedures for an upcoming student program in Jordan at the offices of Where There Be Dragons in Boulder on Wednesday. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

Last year, Malia Obama was one of several hundred students in Dragons' programs. Petal Niles, now 20, entered her first Dragons program when she was 14 in India. Since then, she's traveled to China on two separate occasions, staying with families in each instance, a critical component of the cross-cultural learning the program seeks to offer.

"The mentors I had when I was 14 were inspiring," said Niles, who is studying political theory at Scripps College in California. "After that I wanted more like them."

Founded by Chris Yeager, who has retired, at least temporarily from day-to-day operations, Dragons turns 25 this year. No one's planning a big bash — at least not yet. But this summer, when the company's band of 100 international instructors flocks to Boulder for the company's summer meeting, there will be at least a modicum of merriment, according to Harwood.

Until then, there is an array of work to be done, from recruiting new students, to developing new courses with instructors, to calming anxious parents and checking wound kits that will eventually wind up on China's Yangtze River or in a village in Senegal or Bolivia.

Demand for programs such as Dragons' continues to grow, Harwood said, because schools realize the need for students to develop a global perspective. "To succeed in the 21st Century, you need different skills," Harwood said. "Colleges and high schools are trying to figure out how to meet that need."

Despite the rising demand, Harwood said he doesn't see Dragons dramatically expanding or growing rapidly, as most companies constantly strive to do.

"This is a mission-driven company," he said. "We want to expose students to the tapestry of the world. If you try to scale that, you lose it."

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